ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF AFRICAN SOCIETY: AN AFRICAN-IGBO PHILOSOPHICAL FRAMEWORK FOR PUBLIC HEALTH, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the structural conditions of social life in Africa, and Nigeria in particular faces both the promise and the peril of this transformation across several critical sectors. This article develops an African-Igbo philosophical framework for guiding the engagement of AI with three domains that are pivotal to Nigeria's future: public health, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development. The paper argues that existing AI application frameworks, largely borrowed from Western contexts, fail to account for the relational, communal, and ecological dimensions of African social existence as articulated in the Igbo philosophical tradition. Drawing on core Igbo concepts, including mmadụ bụ ihe kachasi mma (the human person is the most precious value), ọrụ mmadụ (the work of humanity), and the ecological ethic embedded in Igbo land tenure and agricultural practice, the article proposes a tripartite framework that foregrounds human dignity, enterprise ethics, and ecological sustainability as foundational principles for AI adoption in Nigeria. In public health, the framework challenges AI systems that reduce patients to data points and argues for a relational model of AI-assisted care. In entrepreneurship, it draws on the Igbo tradition of Ịgba bọọlụ (collective venture) to propose a communally oriented model of AI-enabled enterprise. In sustainable development, it engages Igbo ecological thought to argue for AI systems that support rather than undermine local environmental knowledge. The article concludes that a reconstructed Igbo philosophical framework, far from being a parochial exercise, offers universally relevant insights for the ethical and socially productive deployment of AI in African and global contexts.